Daveleh Posted March 7, 2003 Report Share Posted March 7, 2003 I have just bought a Maxtor Fireball HD, 40Gb and have had a problem getting ML9.0 to recognise the whole drive. When I installed it as a spare drive to my 13Gb Fujuitsu master and attempted to install ML on it I was asked which of the two drives did I want to use, hda - 12 Gb or hdb - 31 Gb. Hmm I thought that doesn't seem right. So I played around with the Jumpers and disconnected the 13Gb drive and attempted to install Win98SE. This told me that I had a 39Gb drive. At last I thought. So I out everything back and tried with ML again, still only 31Gb reported. So I disconnected the 13Gb master, left the 40Gb as slave and tried again, still only 31Gb. So in desperation I set the 40Gb as master, disconnect the 13Gb and installed Win98. This reported 39Gb and installed OK. Then I set the drive as slave and attempted to install ML. During the install I was asked if I wanted to use the entire Windows partition, to which I replied Yes, and was offered a drive size of 38Gb. I accepted this and installed ML OK. Anyone know why I was only offered 31Gb unless Windows was installed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtweidmann Posted March 7, 2003 Report Share Posted March 7, 2003 Well there is always the fact that HD manufactures use a different definition of giga to the rest of us. They say that 1gig is 1000Mb, not 1024Mb which is what software uses. That doesn't explain the difference you experienced. The only thing I can think of is that the drive wasn't formatted properly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted March 7, 2003 Report Share Posted March 7, 2003 mtwiedman is right, however that slight offset wouldn't account for 9 lost gigs. even on my 40 gig (which is western digital and has had quite the issues with linux) i get about 38gigs for usage, so there's something else here... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cid Posted March 7, 2003 Report Share Posted March 7, 2003 This is not a solution, but maybe a jumping off point for you in your search... Based on the fact that it appears to originally show up as 8 GB short...that number rang a bell. On older BIOS motherboards, you could only boot a drive if it was within the first 8 GB of physical space on the drive. (My Abit AH6 has this issue). Could that be related somehow? I have no idea if this is pertinent or not. But it rang a bell when you noticed an 8 GB loss. Is it for some reason only reading the non-bootable sectors of the drive? It would take someone much smarter than me to figure that one out :) Good luck! D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aRTee Posted March 7, 2003 Report Share Posted March 7, 2003 Very strange, it's more normal that windows doesn't allow full use of a drive (if you have an older bios), and linux does (I know of some cases of people who couldn't have a hd larger than 8GB under win, or at least, not use more than 8GB, but have a full 120GB under linux, best way to protect you data is what I think...).... In any case, check if there are bios settings that you can change/play with. Also check if there is a newer bios available, and update it. Note: all at your own risk! ;) BTW the 8GB limit and the 31 vs 39GB are not related; 8GB is the max adressable in non-LBA mode drives for the bios, hence no way to boot anything that is beyond that... well in the old days.. How was the drive formatted before you installed win98? This may have had some influence. I wouldn't worry about the difference between 39 and 38GB, that may just be some difference in calculation and displaying GB's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daveleh Posted March 7, 2003 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2003 Hi, Well there is always the fact that HD manufactures use a different definition of giga to the rest of us. They say that 1gig is 1000Mb, not 1024Mb which is what software uses. That doesn't explain the difference you experienced. The only thing I can think of is that the drive wasn't formatted properly. Thanks for replying, and also everyone else too. Yes I am aware of the 1000 and 1024 differences so I'm worried about the 38 - 39 - 40 Gb difference but the 31 Gb had me wondering that's all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chef_kunal Posted March 7, 2003 Report Share Posted March 7, 2003 there is some type of bios limit for 32 gb drives- on older bioses that is the drive whether its 32 or 40 or 80 gb get recognised only as 32 gb. I think that when i was putting in my 80 gb drive there was some option of reporting its capacity as 32 gb. I dont have the exact details but i think it was on the seagate website in the partition magic documentation maybe? :roll: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chef_kunal Posted March 7, 2003 Report Share Posted March 7, 2003 check this: http://www.spcug.org/reviews/bl0107.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Counterspy Posted March 7, 2003 Report Share Posted March 7, 2003 The Large Disk How-To installed in the doc section of your Main menu explains in detail how this whole business works. It is mandatory reading for anyone with large drive. If you didn't install the how-to's find it here: http://www.tldp.org. IIRC, this does not explain the missing 8 Gb although who knows. Counterspy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willisoften Posted March 8, 2003 Report Share Posted March 8, 2003 I had the same issue installing Mandrake on my toshiba laptop 15GB . I actually can't remember how it was resolved. When running a dual boot on that machine I never managed to divide the drive the way I wanted (7.5 GB each approx ) it always came out at about 8GB with 3 left over. I eventually wiped windows off it completely and got it to recognise 13GB. 8 + 3 = 11 not 13, so go figure. Other people had the same issue I've always thought it might have been a sort of hidden partiton used by one of those rescue disc things. (I never got a windows disc for it, just a toshiba recovery disc.) It disappeared after an encounter with partitioning tool. fips? I can't remeber who gave me instructions Afrosheen or somebody? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willisoften Posted March 8, 2003 Report Share Posted March 8, 2003 I had the same issue installing Mandrake on my toshiba laptop 15GB . I actually can't remember how it was resolved. When running a dual boot on that machine I never managed to divide the drive the way I wanted (7.5 GB each approx ) it always came out at about 8GB with 3 left over. I eventually wiped windows off it completely and got it to recognise 13GB. 8 + 3 = 11 not 13, so go figure. Other people had the same issue I've always thought it might have been a sort of hidden partiton used by one of those rescue disc things. (I never got a windows disc for it, just a toshiba recovery disc.) It disappeared after an encounter with partitioning tool. fips? I can't remember who gave me instructions Rolf I think, maybe afrosheen? Sorry posted twice, accident and dopiness in equal measure! Mods please delete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ndeb Posted March 8, 2003 Report Share Posted March 8, 2003 Daveleh, What is the output of /bin/df -T -m Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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